[Skruface]

I'll call it like I see it....

Maybe (some of) us long-time players are getting sick and tired of having demands dumped on us by the "me first" mentality of the 15-21 year-old crowd who feel that since we are experienced that we are somehow obligated to help them out? I've noticed that new players expect us to bend over backwards and meet their needs while only offering the excuse that if we don't kiss their ass, "the sport is going to die".

That's not the airsoft community we created in this country - as I remember it, ours was a community with a DIY/self-reliant attitude where only the strong and intelligent flourished and the weak, stupid, dishonorable, and unable-to-research-for-themselves got flamed into oblivion with no mercy or regrets. Back in the days of the old "camo" ASC when Primus ran the show by himself, 70% of this current board would have been run off with their tail between their legs from the incessant (and, in many cases, not undeserved) flaming they would attract. It might not have been the most polite and politically-correct way to run a discussion board, but no one who was around at the time would argue that it wasn't damn effective at keeping the morons out.

I remember when I started out back in '99....there were only something like 8 or 10 guys in all of Manitoba who had airsoft guns, and we played with no velocity limits - it was a "run what ya brung" mentality. If we wanted to play with more than a dozen people or so, we had to drive to Regina or fly to Ontario. We had guys running M150's and 10.8 volts, fingers getting broken and teeth getting knocked out...but we never had to worry about cheating/overshooting or flaked buy/sell deals because we all knew one another by actual names, not just by internet aliases, and in a community that tight, your reputation and honor was everything. Nowadays there are so many local players I can't keep track of them all; I've noticed questionable behavior is on the rise, as there is less accountability in the community when you are (basically) anonymous.

Here's another addition to Blackthorne's commentary - most of the old timers also hold a PAL or R-PAL. That means they have 2 expensive hobbies. One of them (airsoft), has become rife with obnoxious, self-centered, holier-than-thou teens who believe they are the future and demand to be spoonfed at every opportunity and are unwilling to do things themselves and learn the hard way (through failure). The other (target shooting/IPDA/ISPC) is filled with (comparatively) mature folks generally over the age of 25 whom they can better relate to. Ask yourself, as a mature adult, whether you would want to hang around with kids literally half your age with whom you have virtually nothing in common, or adults your own age with similar life experience, careers, vision, problems, etc.? I'm not trying to brag, but for the sake of clarity, I'm 35, married, have an 18-year-old son, a couple of university degrees, a white-collar career, a mortgage, etc. What do I have in common with a single 18-year-old who just graduated high school, works retail and lives in their mom's basement? Not much.....

I think Blackthorne's right - we're simply witnessing the end of one era and the beginning of another. The leaders of the past are moving on to other pastures for a variety of reasons, and the younger players are stepping up and taking stewardship of the hobby, for better or worse. Call it evolution if you will, but one thing is certain.

Airsoft is not going to go back to what it was 5 years ago.